


Two Shadows

by Thatoneguyyoudidntknowfromtumblr



Series: The Saga of Lacroa [7]
Category: SD Gundam Force
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 17:24:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7901308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatoneguyyoudidntknowfromtumblr/pseuds/Thatoneguyyoudidntknowfromtumblr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two day-in-the-life short stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Claw and Nataku

Garnet eyes considered the land they had once and now again considered home.The mind behind the eyes was not as it once had been; trauma and manipulation had twisted it, though not beyond recognition.Nataku, Bronze Knight of Lacroa, one of the five Royal Knights who were personal guard of the Royal Family who ruled the magical kingdom, took pains to hide his nature from his companions, though sometimes he looked into the penetrating eyes of Queen Katrina and wondered how successful he was.  


A sinuous body twined around his and he glanced down at the gold and brown form of the gundam whom had joined him.The wicked golden eyes of his lover seemed to laugh at him, even while Claw herself was silent.It was an expression which prompted both irritation and amusement in him-- usually both.Right now it was both and he let the one lean against the other, wrapping a sky blue and silver arm around her gently.Her clawed gauntlets raised to trace the cracks in his helm, though by now he could tell the difference between a lustful touch and a curious one.Claw, ever tactile, was asking him in her own way if he wanted company in his dark thoughts.In response he lifted his black and white hands to push against hers, but there was no real effort in the movement.He was irritated and in a self-destructive mood, his touch said.Deep enough in the bitter that he wasn't willing to have her distract him with the pleasures the body could provide.  


"Were we in the Isles," Claw said, not dropping her hands but forcing his head down until his red gaze met her golden one, "I'd dose you with liquor, savage Knight.Seein' as we be in civilized lands, I can offer little than I already have.Speak, Nataku.Air the poison 'fore it consumes you."  


"Queen Katrina knows," Nataku said, relying on Claw to follow his train of thought without further clues.  


"Aye," Claw agreed, proving herself up to the task."The lady ain't stupid, or willingly blind, as her husband seems t'be.Or she remembers her own lessons, taught at Lodarian's hand.You expected she wouldn't figure it out?"  


The Bronze Knight returned his gaze to the window, ignoring the mirror beside it."I'd hoped."  


Clawed fingers traced the side of his helmet firmly enough to draw sparks but not hard enough to leave marks.The brief streaks of pain brought Nataku's attention back to the cat-gundam wrapped around him, fixing her with a cold look."Don't give me that, lad," she told him, matching his glare with her own."I be knowin' you too well.I _like_ your darkness, bucko.Makes you more interestin' than the earnest heroes 'round these parts.Dyin' from bein' lapdogs, they are.You?You're one of _my_ kind.One of Winter's kind."  


This time Nataku's red gaze was surprised."Winter?" He asked, tone skeptical."That I find very hard to believe.It was your brother who deemed her the Lady Knight, after all."  


"Aye," Claw agreed, a smirk in her posture."An' beddin' our Winged Knight, shiny white beast he be.She ain't so pure.Look at her bed, if nothin' else."  


"That surprised me," Nataku agreed, shaking his head."Mostly that Zero agreed.He can be, is, always has been, a jealous gundam."  


"Perchance they all be sharin'," Claw suggested, shifting her grip on him from his helmet to around his waist."The three of them."  


"Strange games for them to play," Nataku murmured, drawing Claw up until they were mostly eye to eye."You're not distracting me, Claw."  


"Not my intent," Claw said, pressing their chests together."I want you t'bleed the poison of your thoughts, laddy-buck, not distract you from it.Say it, Nataku.Say th' words.They've power."  


"I'm not who I was," Nataku growled, the golden Crests of Lacroa flickering on his shoulders."Battle may have been restored to himself but I wasn't.The piece of me which Deathscythe ripped from me with that damn machine remains gone."  


"What piece was that?" Claw asked, watching him calmly, her face inches from his.  


"Morality," he replied, spitting the word."Kindness, decency."  


"Over rated, the lot of it," was Claw's dismissive opinion."Nataku, these do-gooders be needin' folk like us around.We be their shadows.They can't be so shinin' pristine without us an' they'd get in a whole heap of trouble without us t'keep them in a straight line.We be the ones as can think the evil thoughts an' see the world as it be, keepin' the balance.Katrina be one of our kind.Didn't start that way, but Lodarian molded her further than she be wantin' to admit.'Sides, what just an' right person has powers of suggestion as she do?We be necessary."  


"Is that something to be so proud of?" Nataku wanted to know.  


"Of course," Claw returned, chuckling."We have more fun.You be knowin' the story of Crow, Knight-be-mine?"  


The Bronze Knight shook his head, letting Claw lead him over to a chair and sitting when she prompted him to.Curling up in his lap and tracing absent patterns on his sky blue armor, Claw got settled before she began to speak."There be two sides to any coin, Nataku.Ain't many as can stand on the razor edge, but it be there, too.But one side be Order.The other be Chaos.Chaos created the 'Verse an' all its songs.Everythin' was all mashed together, like a junk room.Chaos was all that was light in the 'Verse.Order, its shadow, came about and imposed itself on all Chaos had made.Took the 'Verse an' set it to Time, put the barriers 'tween the dimensions, put the planets in their dance, gave life its cycles.Everythin' has got to be balanced, Nataku.All the good in Lacroa?All these earnest little Knights on their straight little roads livin' their honest little lives?No wonder the Dark Axis came.All that light created a _vast_ darkness t'counter it.Everythin' ain't mallows an' sugar fluff in the 'Verse."  


"You're saying," Nataku said, draping his arms around Claw's waist, "that you and I, even Queen Katrina and Winter to some extent, we're the thing preventing something like that from happening again?"  


"Head of the class," Claw told him, golden eyes glinting with mischievousness."We be the groundin' rods.The place for all the dark to gather so it don't start festerin' in pockets an' make itself into any kind of big baddy.We keep it to a tolerable level."  


The Royal Knight Gundam gave Claw a long look, which she returned with her best innocent gaze.Finally he reached up and gently shoved her head to the side, drawing a chortle from the cat-gundam."I can't tell if you're handing me a load of slag in your way of cheering me up or if you're telling the truth."  


"Does it matter?" Claw wanted to know, giving a sensual stretch."I happen t'be tellin' the truth."  


"Do you ever tell the truth?" Nataku questioned, feeling a bit of the darkness easing from his mood.  


"Whyever would I lie?" Claw asked in return."The truth, particularly uncomfortable an' brutally honest truths, be so much more fun."  


"What a twisted soul you are," Nataku sighed, reaching up to gently chuck her under the chin."What a lucky gundam I am, to have kept your attention for this long."  


"You know full well that once my loyalty is won," Claw countered, "it be won for _life_ , Nataku.You be far too interestin' for me to let you alone, all that darkness under your armor."  


"It makes me uncomfortable," Nataku said finally."I remember a time when I was as virtuous as Battle.As Zero."  


"Zero ain't so virtuous, but I get your meanin'," Claw agreed, shifting so she was laying against him, even where he was sitting in the chair."Harken to me.Darkness ain't evil.Light ain't good.They simply are.It be gundams an' human kind as attached value to them.The summer sun can be just as harmful as the dark of a hurricane.The new moon can be just as gentle as a spring day."  


"Dark Mana--" Nataku argued, a frown to his tone.Claw sat up straight and turned so she was straddling his legs, the smirk back in her posture.  


"Were Dark Mana used t'heal, you wouldn't be thinkin' them t'be so evil," she pointed out."Mana be used to harm you an' yours many times, yet you still be thinkin' it a tool of them as still be pure.Examine your life, your past, the past of Zero, the Winged Knight, the past of Winter, Knight of Silent Frost.Winter wasn't always Winter, Nataku.She was called Song, once."  


Startled, Nataku sat up straight, his garnet eyes fixing Claw with an intense look."Song, Knight of the Frozen Storm?" He asked, "she was killed, in the battle for the Pirate Isles."  


"Nay," Claw denied."Song, Frozen Knight, she was mind-broke.The Gryphon took her body an' used it t'help the Gundam Force defeat Admiral Lodarian.The both of 'em disappeared after that battle but didn't die.Song spent 'bout two years in the Isles, where she became Winter.That be why she be one of us, Nataku.Not so blindingly pure, be Winter.She's had her own darkness livin' inside her."  


"I remember what you said when she landed on us," Nataku said, his gaze distant."Mostly drowned and more than half dead, after Fang and gone after his mentor.She was Chaos Touched."  


Claw winced slightly, remembering how Winter, a lot of water and a few fish, had abruptly appeared in Claw and Nataku's quarters that afternoon, interrupting what had been a very nice moment between the two."Aye," she agreed, shaking her head slightly."Then she was nigh soaked with it, down to her soul.T'hear Fang tell it, Crow an' Talkback removed most of that, leavin' what had been there before, that what makes it possible for Winter t'see the world as it is, instead of how she be wantin' it to be."  


"Makes a gundam wonder how much I have on me," Nataku murmured.Claw tilted her head at him, expression contemplative.  


"Not as much as one'd think," she said finally."You're more Order aligned, Nataku.You be wantin' control, not freedom."  


"True," Nataku allowed, dropping his head back."Don't ever leave me, Claw.I'd go the way of Deathscythe if you did."  


"That not be why I stay," Claw told him, chuckling and dropping a kiss onto his mask."But it be a perk.I be lovin' you honest, Nataku.You take me for me, without tryin' to change a cat."  


The Royal Knight's chin snapped down and he gave Claw a blank look."Why in the world would I want to change you?" He demanded, "you're the only one I can really talk to around here.You don't condemn me, no matter what I do."  


"Nor will I ever," Claw told him."You be of my kind, Bronze Knight, like I've said.We be wicked together, kinked and perverted.I can dodge you, you keep me workin'.This be a good match, us."  


"Are we two sides of your coin?" Nataku asked, catching her and pulling her close with a faint grin.  


"Nah," Claw scoffed."We be shadows, the both of us.Two cats in the night, twinin' about each other an' scarin' away the true darkness.Who'd challenge a pair of dirty sneaks like us, hey?"


	2. Zero and Winter

"This better be good," Winter grumbled, resisting the urge to lift a fist to scrub one of her pale eyes.It had been a long day and with how Zero was acting, it was promising to be an even longer one."Is there a reason we must do this now?The morning is just as good a time for this sort of thing--"  


"They won't be here in the morning," Zero told her, turning to offer her a smile."Just a little longer, Winter.If you still want to go in a few minutes, we will, I promise."  


The ice mage leveled the Winged Knight a flat look."You know I will hold you to that," she told him, crossing her arms over the pale yellow jewel resting in the center of her breastplate."Now, tell me, Winged Knight, what--"  


They came out of the dark tunnel they had been walking in and Winter fell quiet, gazing out on the garden before them.It was a dark night, the moon a mere sliver of light, but from the brightness of the stars, Winter knew they were far from the capital of Lacroa.As was always the case in Lacroa, there were rose bushes everywhere, but these weren't the sort she was used to seeing.They were both of the climbing type and of a lush, bushy type whose orange and rich red blossoms gave off a heady scent.The perfume was distinctly different from how the Princess Rose smelled; it was wild and dark with hints of velvet softness.Zero had kept moving so Winter followed him silently, taking care where she placed her feet, not wanting to disturb the quiet peace of this place.   


The bushes and trees around them were mostly overgrown, showing that the garden hadn't felt the touch of a gardener's pruning shears in many years.Winter found she liked it better this way; the chaotic freedom spoke to something deep in her gunsoul which she hadn't felt much since Crow had removed the Chaos taint from her armor.The Knight of Silent Frost felt the weariness drop from her form and took a deep breath, filling her intakes with the rich night air.   


A form appeared out of the darkness and Zero smiled at her, tucking one of the dark red roses into the side of her helmet.Winter smiled at him, taking his hand in hers and twining their fingers together.She wanted to know how he had found this place, when he had found time to explore, a hundred other things she had meant to ask him but never seemed to have time, but couldn't seem to find her voice.Zero raised his other hand to cup her cheek, his fingers gently brushing the catch which freed her helmet from her head.The soft brush sent shivers through Winter and she nodded slightly, giving him permission to remove the piece of armor.He did with such gentle care that no sound was made, even the usual slight catch and scrape when she removed the tight fitting armament.   


Giving herself a slight shake against the spell the stars, roses and Zero himself were casting over her soul, Winter reached up and ran her fingers gently over his mask, watching the contrast between the dark metal of her hands and the light metal protecting his face, feeling the sharp edges and gentle curves as if for the first time.She knew from the way a slight blush touched the silver metal that her fingers left trails of fire behind.Without lifting them from the surface of his skin, she traced her way to the catch of his helmet, her pale eyes flicking to his bright ones for permission.He too gave only the slightest of nods and she keyed the release with a slight flick of the tips of her fingers.His helmet joined hers on the ground.   


A flicker of light caught Winter's eye and she turned, gasping when a thousand little sparks began to blink in the air.Zero wrapped an arm around her waist and she leaned against him without a thought, reaching out with her free hand to rest her palm under one of the shimmering lights.To her surprise, its yellow glimmer reflected off her palm, revealing something which looked like a fuzzy bagubagu with miniature dragonfly wings.Zero also raised a hand, one of the bugs alighting on the tip of his index finger for just a moment before it lifted again and swept the one hovering over her palm into a spinning dance."Beautiful," Winter sighed, glad her smoky alto tones slipped in under the silence instead of breaking it. "Thank you, Zero."  


"It is something we've needed for some time," Zero murmured, wrapping both of his arms around her from behind."To solve the distance between us."  


Winter raised a hand to rest over where his were resting on her torso, the other lifting to touch the side of his face and her head resting gently against his shoulder."I know," she murmured."As it does, from time to time.But we compliment each other, beloved.The world may spin on between us but we will return to each other in the end.This has been proven."  


Her fingers found the catch for his mask and triggered it, her body twisting in his arms to catch him in a firm kiss before he could even think to object about the intrusion.Together they danced under the stars, bodies swaying together in the glow from the firebugs and sliver moon.Fingers made their ways into the private places of the world, the places sensitive to such touches.Familiar as they were with each other, they needed no music to complete the dance, just each other.By morning's sun, love was glimmering between them once more, the secret places of their souls exposed, viewed, loved and joined many times.   


Morning dew glittered on the roses surrounding them, the sun's rays casting miniature rainbows in each drop.The two Royal Knights sat together, watching the sunrise drowsily.Winter yawned and stretched, settling back into Zero's side once stiffened joints had been appeased."Fang will be wondering where we are," she murmured, letting her eyes close and feeling the warmth of the sun's rays on her mask.   


"He knows," Zero returned softly, resting his head on the top of hers."He may have chosen to spend the night with Mercury.He was still undecided yesterday."  


"A strange gundam, our wolf," Winter mused, chuckling softly.   


"We are all strange," Zero pointed out, nudging a piece of fruit against her hand.Winter's eyes came open and she accepted it, using the time she was munching to think on his statement.   


"True," she allowed finally."But the private lives of Knight Gundams are not something I have put much study into.I am no voyeur."  


"Not one for romance novels?" Zero asked, his tone lightly teasing.  


"I know you are," Winter returned, "a fact which I continue to hold over your head as blackmail, my love.Were Baku to find out..."  


"I have a feeling he already knows," Zero sighed, "or guessed."  


"I do not know," Winter mused, "he is not the brightest of gundams, that samurai, fire affinity aside."  


"He is silly," Zero agreed, laughing slightly."But we all can be, at times."  


"What is this?" Winter asked, drawing away from his side to grin at him playfully."The most noble and elegant Knight in the land admitting to being silly?Not this dignified and sophisticated gundam.Surely you are far too exquisite and comely for that!"  


"You forgot courtly, opulent and majestic," Zero told her, affecting his most aloof bearing.   


"Oh yes," Winter agreed, eyes sparkling."Not to mention fancy, genteel and dainty.One might even say that you are refined, polished...or foppish."  


In a flash Zero had picked up one of the rinds from their fruit breakfast and tossed it at her.Winter caught it with a laugh, trotting out of reach, her feet beating a happy tattoo on the grass.Zero was after her in an instant, catching her about the waist and placing a kiss on her cheek before passing her and catching up their helmets.He then engaged his flight booster and took off, casting a grin over his shoulder at her startled expression.   


"Zero!" She called, shaking her head before bolting after him, forming iceslicks on the bottom of her feet so she could get more speed by sliding than running.It was early enough that the majority of the Palace was still abed; court often went to the small hours of the morning, meaning that those who would care about the two Royal Knights' silly antics were still fast asleep."Now who is being silly?" Winter pointed out in a soft call, angling around a corner in an attempt to catch up with him.   


The Winged Knight simply cast a handful of violet rose petals over his shoulder, putting on a burst of speed.Guessing where he was going Winter dodged through a doorway, moving quickly enough that all a sleepy Claw saw was a flash of determined pale blue eyes, silver armor and a smear of red cape.Figuring whatever had Winter moving so quickly this early in the morning was best avoided in favor of a nap in the sun, Claw simply put her head back down and went back to sleep.Skidding sideways down a banister so she didn't lose time on a set of stairs, Winter slid into the hallway in front of their rooms at the exact same time as Zero, much to his surprise.   


Using her momentum, Winter caught Zero around the waist, spinning them into their rooms with a bright laugh.A gust of wind from Zero slammed the door behind them and Winter brought Zero down for another kiss."Helmet," she said once it was done, though she didn't let go with him with either hand to accept it.Zero laughed, settling the missing armor piece on her head gently, already having put his own helmet on.   


"You'd better hope you didn't leave puddles behind," he pointed out while she melted the ice from her feet and sent the water into a nearby vase."Or everyone will know of the chase-- and the garden."  


"I am a better mage than that," Winter said, copying his aloof manner from earlier.Zero dipped and gave her another kiss, landing on the ground while he did."I will tell you a secret," Winter said softly, once the kiss as broken.   


"What is that?" Zero asked, leading her to their bedchamber.   


"I am very much in love with you," Winter murmured, rising slightly to brush her mask gently against his ear.Zero shuddered and wrapped his arms around her with a soft look to his electric blue eyes.   


"That is no secret," he told her, chuckling."Nor is it a secret that I am so much in love with you, beloved Winter, that I'm nigh addicted."  


"There are worse things to be addicted to," Winter laughed."Thank you for showing me the firebugs, Zero, my Winged Knight."  


"Yours forever," Zero agreed, gently taking the dark red rose from her helm and placing it into the vase she had just filled with water. 


End file.
